by Tina Folsom

When I first saw book trailers pop up on blogs and websites, I was frankly baffled. Why would anybody make a book trailer? Who would see it anyway? And would somebody really buy your book because they liked the trailer? After all, a book is not advertised in the same way a movie is.

I tried to find the answers to these questions, because I was curious whether an investment in a book trailer (and the good ones aren’t cheap) would be warranted. Here’s what I found at first: fans love book trailers. For them it’s as if somebody had made a movie of their favorite book, allowing them to dream and live through it once more. It’s really meant for them, as a little thank you and to encourage them to come back. I also found that a trailer can enrich your website, your blog, and any newsletter you might send out to your readers. It can also give you a very professional look.  But your website, your blog, and your newsletter are directed toward readers who already know you. Again, you’re marketing to existing fans.

So how can you use this trailer to help make new readers curious about your books? I dug deeper and came up with with several possibilities of how to get the most mileage out of your book trailer:

• First of all, make sure you get a really polished book trailer that reflects the feel of your writing. I used www.bookcandystudios.com to get mine done. While they weren’t cheap, they were very professional and great to work with, no matter how many changes I wanted done.

• Upload your trailer to youtube and make sure you assign great keywords to it

• Update your website and blog with the trailer

• Upload your trailer to your Goodreads author page

• Post your trailer on Facebook and ask your fans to share the post – to get your FB friends and fans to share your trailer, host a little contest and raffle off a free book, a poster, or anything else you think is appropriate. People are entered in the contest if they share your FB post. It’s a relatively easy and inexpensive way to spread the word.

• You can also use the trailer on Facebook ads. I have noticed that people are much more likely to click on a video in a FB ad rather than on a link or cover.

• Google Adwords also allows you to advertise trailers, but this can become pricey. So watch your budget on this one.

• Occasionally some retailers will allow you to post a trailer on your book’s product page. I recently got one retailer to post my trailer (in English, German, French, and Spanish) to my books’ product pages, really enhancing my listings. It makes the books stand out and entices readers who browse through the books on the site to really take notice. Eventually, more and more retailers might look at this kind of enhanced product listing and allow authors to do this.

• If you’re technically savvy and know how to embed a video into an ePub, you can also do that, however, again, in this case you’re marketing to your existing fans.

Other possibilities might crop up in the next few months as retailers become more sophisticated and more willing to work together with authors, helping them market their books. Make sure you’re ready for it.

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About the Author

Tina Folsom is an international bestselling author of paranormal romance with over 15 books published in four languages.  She currently lives in San Francisco.

Visit Tina’s website

Check out Tina’s Scanguards series on Kobo